Just looked at the 48-hour declarations for Ascot on Saturday and the numbers are not great. The card used to start with the Ladies’ Race but that has now been moved down to 4:25. Just six face the starter for the opening 7-furlong Listed Winkfield Stakes for two year olds, including The Queen’s Peacock, followed by eight in the Princess Margaret. The International Stakes obviously has attracted a huge field of twenty nine for the money but the race before looks much more of a betting proposition with eleven. The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes has been cut down to the following nine: 1 Flintshire – M Guyon 2 Leitir Mor – R P Whelan 3 Magician – J P O’Brien 4 Mukhadram – D O’Neill 5 Telescope – R Moore 6 Trading Leather – K Manning 7 Eagle Top – W Buick 8 Romsdal – R Hughes 9 Taghrooda – P Hanagan Looks like I was wrong about Romsdal running. Leitir Mor is the only pacemaker left.
Flintshire out of the race due to an ‘elevated temperature’ so now only a maximum of 8 will face the old boy starter. He had been a 12/1 shot at the time of the announcement. As a result the principals, in the main, have all been shortened slightly in the market.
